Code of Conduct
You should check out our shared values.
Communications rules
The following rules apply to all means of communication, online and in real life.
- Do not use foul language, and absolutely NO insults will be tolerated.
- Be careful with direct criticism:
- Focus on the possible improvements and do not make the issue a personal one.
- You should, when possible, criticize in private, and praise publicly; since most of our communications are public and people can be sensitive about that.
- Ad hominem attacks are not accepted.
- Do not flame or troll; it is not funny.
- Do not undo someone's else contribution (wiki edits, code reverts, etc...) without asking first.
- Send all communication in English.
- The videolan@ mailing list, wiki translated pages, and forum-specific topics allow different languages, when clearly flagged.
- Do not send spam.
- Do not abuse administrative powers.
- These Code of Conduct rules are not exhaustive; please use common sense, to infer other rules.
Mailing lists
When using the VideoLAN mailing lists, please follow also these simple rules:
- The mailing lists exist to foster the development and use of VideoLAN. Unconstructive and off-topic messages, along with other abuse, are not welcome.
- Make sure that you are using the proper list. In particular, don't send user-related questions to developer mailing lists.
- If you want to explain to someone how to use a mailing list, please do it privately.
- Do not quote messages that were sent to you by other people in private mail, unless agreed beforehand.
- When replying to messages on the mailing list, do not send a carbon copy (CC) to the original poster unless they explicitly requested to be copied. When replying on a private mailing list, this does not apply as the recipient would not be able to read the reply otherwise.
- If you send messages to lists to which you are not subscribed, always note that fact in the body of your message.
Mailing list Etiquette
- Wrap your lines at 80 characters or less for ordinary discussion. Lines longer than 80 characters are acceptable for computer-generated output (e.g., ls -l).
- Avoid top-posting in conversations.
- Avoid HTML-only messages; have a plain text version instead.
- Avoid sending large attachments; mails with attachments over 65kb will have to be moderated by administrators.
- Do not send automated "out-of-office" or "vacation" messages.
- Do not send "test" messages to determine whether your mail client is working. We have a test mailing list for that.
- Do not send subscription or unsubscription requests to the list address itself; use the respective -request address instead.
IRC
When using the VideoLAN IRC channels, please follow these rules:
- Do not quote messages that were sent to you by other people in private query, unless agreed beforehand.
- If you want to explain to someone how to use IRC, do it privately.
- Never send messages with colours (i.e. colour codes); use plain text instead.
- Do not send "test" messages to determine whether your IRC client is working. We have a #test channel for that.
Forum
- Do not bump a topic several times per day.
- Do not cross-post your question across sub-forums.
- Do not edit your past posts overly often.
Bugtrackers
- Do not change priority or importance lightly.
Code repositories: Git / SVN / HG
- Do NOT engage in revert wars.
- Do NOT delete another developer's commit without approval by using push --force.
- No insult in commits or commit messages.
- Respect the correct commit log style.
Real life, Conferences, Meetings and Assemblies
- Absolutely no violence will be tolerated,
- "No" means "No",
- You get one warning from the board first, and then you're out,
- This also applies for the community day of VDD.
Disciplinary actions
Violations of the Code of Conduct will be punished.
See the following guidelines for escalations steps and sanctions.
Escalation
- The first violation will always result in a simple warning, except if it is a grave or deliberate violation.
- The following violations will result in some of the disciplinary actions listed in the paragraphs below.
- For repetitive violations, the case may be escalated to the VideoLAN board and general assembly for further disciplinary actions.
In case of any disciplinary action, a VideoLAN board member will send an email to the offender and copy the association mailing list.
Disciplinary Actions
The following disciplinary actions may be enforced when a direct Code of Conduct violation is reported.
NB: Before applying any of those following disciplinary policies, the VideoLAN board will try to discuss the problem with the offender in order to solve it in a more peaceful way.
However, it is possible for the board to apply the penalty without discussions in severe Code of Conduct violations.
Mailing lists
- The netiquette violations will get only a warning. Repeated netiquette violations will be escalated.
- 24-hour ban from the mailing list in question.
- Every third violation, the contributor will get a 7-day ban.
- As one cannot develop without the mailing lists, a ban from a *-devel mailing list will result in a ban from commit access for one day on the related project.
- For spam violations, the first ban can be longer or infinite.
IRC
- Direct kick for minor violations, enforced by channels ops.
- Other violations will get a 24-hour ban from the IRC channel.
- Every third violation, the offender will have a 7-day ban.
Forum
- Direct ban and account deletion for spam.
- 24-hour ban from the forum website.
- Every third violation, the offender will have a 1-month ban.
Bugtracker
- 24-hour ban from trac.
- Removal of developer or admin rights.
- Every third violation, the offender will be banned for 7 days.
- Every third violation, a developer may lose commit access for 7 days.
Wiki
- 24-hour ban from the wiki.
- Removal of developer or admin rights.
- Every third violation, the offender will be banned for 7 days.
Code repositories
- 24-hour ban from commit access.
- Removal of gitosis admin rights.
- Every third violation, the developer will lose commit access for 7 days.
